Construction begins on North Carolina State University’s new engineering building

North Carolina State University graduates over 2,500 engineers and computer scientists every year, and future students will soon have a new engineering building to call home. Fitts-Woolard Hall is a 224,000-sf, four-story building that will complete the College of Engineering’s move to NC State’s Centennial Campus.

The building will support broad initiatives in areas such as advanced materials and manufacturing, robotics and sensor technology, service sector engineering, critical infrastructure and security, transportation and logistics, and energy and environmental systems.

The building will house the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, and the College of Engineering Dean’s administrative offices.

Two entrance lobbies are connected by a wide corridor with views into engineering labs and open stairs. The first floor is built into the slope of the site with a concrete structure and below-grade cast-in-place retaining walls. The second floor is cast-in-place elevated slab construction while levels three, four, and the roof will be steel-frame construction. The skin of the building will consist of curtainwall and brick veneer.

The 3,500-sf maker lab is the hot spot for ASU engineering students. Hands-on learning and cross-disciplinary collaboration are encouraged. “Prototyping and experimentation, those are vital,” said Kyle Squires, Dean, Fulton Schools of Engineering. “It’s the way students are thinking these days.” Photo: Bill Timmerman.

The San Bernardino (Calif.) Valley Community College Kinesiology and Athletics Center, designed by HMC Architects. The three-story, 108,509-sf, $69 million facility has two NCAA competition gymasiums. Photo: David Fennema, HMC Architects.

A new study of nine schools in Washington D.C. corroborates recent research finding that modernization creates more satisfactory places for students and faculty. Image: Perkins Eastman, Investing in our Futures: How School Modernization Impacts Indoor Environmental Quality and Occupants.